I have been doing things with maya about a few months now
And At a beginners level of Shake

I was wondering if people from Montreal wants to do things together with me?

Since its going to speed up completions of our (me and you guys) projects....I like to work with ppl...

I am more interested in VFX and Compositing but at the moment since there isnt anyone to help me to model, texture, Lighting, rendering etc ... I am doing it all myself in a very slow speed and I dont get the resaults I want

The Purpose of this group is only personal development

if you are a beginner and would like to join me just drop me a line ;)
its not very necessary to live in Montreal ;)

Looking forward to hear from you

softdistortion

01 January 2006, 12:36 PM

Some of the animations on your linked site look decent. The atmosphere on the first clip is cool. Also the bullet time teapot is neat. :)

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 02:48 PM

The Post is Deleted

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 02:48 PM

softdistortion Thanks for your reply ;)

Well those animations are old they were made in 2003 and that time I was using 3DS Max 5.0

As for 3D now I use only maya and in 2003 I was just playing around with things now I seriously study on my free times ;)

I checked your site as well ... you have really great works in your galery ... So I guess you wouldnt be interested in working on some projects with me ;) you are already pretty good at what you are doing ... I loved some of your models ... Most of them were more like japanese style are you japanese?

thanks again and take care for now

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 02:49 PM

Himmm sorry for double reply ;)

softdistortion

01 January 2006, 03:12 PM

ah..i did notice that date,but wasn't sure how it all fit together :) ...still good stuff for a starter though.

Thanks for the comments on our gallery. The models are from a variety of members that are or have been with the shirowproject team. The standout, mega contributers on the modelling end are Aurora, Sllink and lately Dogma :buttrock:
I did most of the texturing and rendering.
I'm not Japanese, but I do love the Japanese taste for their scifi designs.

Right now I am pretty busy with regular workload and shirowproject, but I do sometimes drop in and help with other peoples projects, so you never know what might happen ;)

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 04:15 PM

;)

Thanks again

Your gallery is really suberb I wish one day I can be as good as you guys
is Aurora from VFXTalk? He has really good compositing work since he is in the field already ;)

I like to ask a texturing question if you dont mind

I am trying to do a photoreal apple... the problem is the texture (I guess)

as a renderer I use Mental ray: final gather ... So the light and anything else is just as I want (no shadows being casted on the model its going to be used in a video composing)
The problem is the texture I guess or I dont know what else it could be
it stretches the texture (I modelled it in NURBS then converted it to poly, the texture looks really blured out. I even sharpened the image but it just got worse)

here is the link of the textured model :
http://aa.1asphost.com/GhostDragon/Images/apple09.jpg

and here is my texture map: its 480*480 the original is 2048*2048
http://aa.1asphost.com/GhostDragon/Images/RedAppleTexture01.jpg

if the links doesnt work just copy/paste it in your browser ...

I am really annoyed I have been working on this for quiet a while now ... but I cant get the resault I want

Thanks again and looking forward to hear from you ...

My Best Regards

softdistortion

01 January 2006, 04:44 PM

I'll try to say a few things that might help. First I want to mention it's REALLY good that you posted example images of your render and your image map...surprising that many people don't include that info...maybe they think the people trying to help have telepathy? :D

The image you use will influence the final look, so the closer you get to an actual apple image the better. The one you are using is reasonably good.

You didn't mention how you applied the image to your mesh, but I assume that it is a standard projection?
To get it looking great isn't easy on organic meshes. Here are a couple methods>

- do a second projection that works better on your distorted middle section of the apple...and use a falloff to blend the two projections so you get less blurring.

- do a UV unwrap and use a grid image to see whare you need to tweak the points to reduce the distortions in your applied image map.

Getting your head around the how's and whys is not easy, and I still struggle with it OFTEN:)...so you are already doing pretty good for starting out on this!

I did a couple simple texture/UV tutorials on how I work, that might be of interest to you...they are in our team forum (see my sig for the link) you don't have to sign up to see this section as it is the public tut foruma area.

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 06:45 PM

Well I am new to everything ...
I checked some UV Unwrapping tutorials

I used couple of methods thou ...
First in Maya I went to the UV Texture Editor you can see the unwrapped map there ... so I painted it in PS .. First I applied a checker board with numbers and characters on it too see the exact location of what I am painting
I guess thats the best method to use ...

After a lot of unsuccessfull tries
I tried something else ... There is a 3d Paint tool in maya you paint some color on the object you want to unwarp and texture
so its king of doing something similar to unwarpping it saves the info in an image file

>The image you use will influence the final look, so the closer you get to an actual apple image the better. The one you are using is reasonably good.

But Still I am not very happy with the resault ... I guess the problem now is the texture itself ...

>You didn't mention how you applied the image to your mesh, but I assume that it is a standard projection?
To get it looking great isn't easy on organic meshes. Here are a couple methods>

in Maya first I applied a Lambert material for my referance only
Then its color map I applied the Texture Map... when applying the Color Map As for 2D Texture I used the method: normal
File and selected the color map...

>- do a second projection that works better on your distorted middle section of the apple...and use a falloff to blend the two projections so you get less blurring.

himm this I never did this, I remember something in max there were fall of option but I dont how to do this in maya

- do a UV unwrap and use a grid image to see whare you need to tweak the points to reduce the distortions in your applied image map.

Thats what I did actually Seems its the best way that is going to work for me ;) I guess I have to play around a little more with it

>Getting your head around the how's and whys is not easy, and I still struggle with it OFTEN...so you are already doing pretty good for starting out on this!
I did a couple simple texture/UV tutorials on how I work, that might be of interest to you...they are in our team forum (see my sig for the link) you don't have to sign up to see this section as it is the public tut foruma area.

Your tutorials are really good ;)
I studied the texture painting fundamentals by gnomon only the first half of DVD 1 thou
But I am sure your Tutorials will be very usefull as well

Thank you very much for everything
I really appreciate ... its really very difficult when starting off these and dont know even what to ask ;)

Thanks again

softdistortion

01 January 2006, 06:58 PM

You are on the right track, now apply the checker grid to your apple mesh. Then open the UV in one window while you also have have another window to see the grid mapped on your apple. select and adjust/move the points on your UV map...basically like I showed in the lazy UV tutorial. While you move the point or rows of point watch how moving them affects the grid in the preview window. when you see the grid is evenly distributed on your mesh you should be able to reapply your apple image map without the distortion.

And The way the unwrapped version looks:
http://aa.1asphost.com/GhostDragon/Images/UnWrapped01.jpg

well the main problem here is that the texture on mesh isnt even close to the one made with PS, it stretches and blures the texture ...

I really dont know what to do ...
I checked the Lazy UV tutorial but I coulndt find there what I was looking for
The Main Problem is that the texture is streched and blured ...

For the texture map I moved around the vertices and edges etc but it looks even worse that way ... when I make them closer or far apart ... is there anything else I should be looking at?

I really appreciate all your helps
Thank you very much again ;)

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 09:53 PM

Himm actualy now I understand what yo man
I am sorry to trouble that much

After i am done I will post the final resault ;)

Thanks again

softdistortion

01 January 2006, 10:05 PM

no trouble...I especialy don't mind becasue you did your part of the work already and explained what you had happening really well. Was a pleasure :thumbsup:

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 10:13 PM

Thank you very much again your comments were really helpfull

I am very anxious to get it completed ;)

TheGhostDragon

01 January 2006, 10:45 PM

Man I am really happy

Just Like a little kid unwrapping his birthday present ;)

I cant thank you enough
you really helped me a lot

Here is the new link:
http://aa.1asphost.com/GhostDragon/Images/aPPLE12.jpg

the top one is new one the bottom is the old ... the differance is pretty obvious ...
I know the new has texture problems but I reall wasnt looking to that much ... I textured little part of the apple in the middle section and the rest was just copy/paste with PS so the texture repeats itself frequently ...
But I am really happy I could figure it out with your help ;)

Thanks again

softdistortion

01 January 2006, 10:57 AM

Glad it all worked out for you! :thumbsup:

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